Sakura Seafood and Supreme Buffet

The only reason I gave this place one star is because «Stay Far Away» is not an option. Arrived early enough to ensure we would not have to wait long (right before noon this afternoon). Where do I begin??? The 12 year old wanted something simple to and got shrimp and some steamed broccoli; the 13 year old got BBQ chicken, steamed broccoli and angelhair pasta — both sat down, said grace and TA-​DA their food was COLD. Second plate after getting another… food was warm. I get the salt/​pepper calamari and it was rubbery. The 13 year old decided to get ice cream got back to the table and it had a funny after taste and smell. Both then got the jello and… there was sonething in it. Finally, we get our «complimentary» fortune cookies and there was one which was crunched up and no fortune in it (can’t do that to kids) so I bring this to the attention of the waitstaff… she not happy and brought the kid another less crumbled cookie. Really??? Overall — find another place to eat as the quality of fresh, hot, tasty food has gone to hell!

I really like this place! I used to go a lot when I lived in the Enclave across the street but less now since I moved. The lunch buffet is a really good deal for the price but I personally like to go for dinner. They have a pretty large selection and do refill it very frequently during busy times like the weekends.
However I went on a Tuesday night at around 7:30 and my favorite bins (the scallops, clams, and oysters) were empty and never refilled the whole time I was there.
Also I remember a couple years ago when I went frequently they had a way better sushi section with lots of nigiri and sashimi. The rolls were really good too. But now it seems like they just have really cheap rolls, mostly with lettuce (who puts lettuce in sushi…) and I’ve only see a nigiri boat once the last few times I went.

Not impressed… My first visit to Sakura was a lunch order «take out»… the calamari wasn’t crispy enough & tasted like it was fried in 2-​day old grease… YUCK! The restaurant itself appeared clean & the staff was polite.

As this kind of place goes, Sakura is pretty much as good as it gets. The sushi is good and includes nigiri as well as lots of variations on the California roll. On sunday/​dinner (when I went — they might have some on lunch too), they also have duck, squid, octopus, oysters too. This plus the hibachi station and all your usual Chinese buffet items.
The selection is as good or better than most other buffets I’ve been to and the food quality is pretty good. The food is not overly sweet, greasy, or thick with MSG like it sometimes is. Everything tasted like what it was, not all washed out bland flavors.
Dinner is on the high side for these places at $ 13, still a good value but lunch is more fair at $ 8, even if you get a little less selection.
The place is very full and the food is fresh and turned over a fair amount. Overall you’d have a hard time finding a better buffet in this class. $ 30 sushi buffet, sure that will be better. I’d call this place «best in its class.»

Sakura Seafood and Supreme Buffet is an extremely large «palace» type of buffet place in College Park about a mile from the University of Maryland.
PROS
Easy to find
Large parking lot
All of their stations had full food bins
Large and varied food choices
CONS
Their bread, chicken and seafood doesn’t taste like anything-​f l a v o r l e s s!
Neither I, nor my companions could distinguish the flavors of the different meat dishes,
so chicken and beef tasted the same as shrimp! wth?
Hibachi was tasteless, even though I ordered the beef
Asking the front desk guy a question about the drinks was annoying him and
he dismissed our group by waving us to the right! Really?
I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND THIS LOCATION! Why go somewhere where the food is
tasteless, when you could go somewhere a little cleaner and with better quality of food?
Maybe there is another better Sakura somewhere else, but this one is not a good one.

Most bad food ever!!! Stinky! Foul smelling! Bad stuffs! Unhygienic !! When I first enter I smelled pee!!! Never gonna come! Believe me it is like throwing your money in waste bin!!! Foul foul foul !!! Now I m having stomach pain!!! I hate Sakura!!! Disgusting!!!

1 star at best… located behind a bowling alley, a palace of jade green plastic tables and not so clean everything was a last minute chance at sabotaging my Tuesday evening. Out of coke, the seltzered down orange soda is maybe the first time ever that I refused a refill. Roasted chicken and asparagus were the best parts of a sushi expectation ruined! I don’t know how anyone would ever tip the sushi ‘chef’ as the best pieces were the pickled ginger dipped in soy sauce in an effort to flavoring any of the 5 different rolls that were all comprised in some way of imitation crab. Don’t fret, desert was equally dissatisfying as the only visually edible choice was self serve hand dipped soft chocolate ice cream that tasted like simulation.
I should’ve gone to the bowling alley vending machine.

Okey, I’m still in the restaurant and its my first time but I feel like I have to comment on it right now. This place is simply heaven. The ambiance is cool, the place is beautiful, even almost class and the food is just amazing. I discovered this thing I’m totally crazy about. I’m loving it: D

Pros:
— food is replenished in a timely manner
— ample seating
— bathroom clean
— good variety of food
— parking is good
— diverse crowds which includes Asians, Hispanics, Caucasians, African Americans
Negatives:
— a lot of hungry patrons
— fat lady was trying to fight me for the first dibs on some oysters*
— customer service is okay… No awards
*because of this reason… I will not be back … Too much of senseless drama over food…

You cannot imagine how cheap it is to have such a rich buffet… The fruit and sushi there are not bad. But crabs there are not very fresh. I love tilapia there.

I set my expectations low when visiting a chinese buffet located in a strip mall next to a bowling alley. The first time I went here, it was for my meal with my family members after college graduation. The second time was on Christmas or Thanksgiving (forgot) Day with my family. As you’ve expected from this description, this place is open on all special holidays. It might be ghetto to invite your family out to a chinese buffet for Christmas lunch but it saves the trouble of cooking and cleaning after everyone leaves.
This restaurant doesn’t look too shabby on the inside. The buffet stations are placed directly at the center, with the sushi, and noodle/​habachi stations toward the backend. Surprisingly the food here is decent. Most of the food served here is what you’ll find at a typical takeout restaurant so your sesame chicken and beef with broccoli. There are more hard to come by dishes like the salmon filets, steamed snow crab legs and steamed crabs. The seafood is what you should be coming to the restaurant for because it’s reasonably fresh and the quantity is unlimited.
As mentioned before toward the back you’ll find the quintessential sushi bar at a chinese buffet. The selection here isn’t bad; they have classic rolls like california, spicy tuna, avocado, and deep fried rolls. Overall the sushi bar is worth your time to take a glance and a plate full of food for. Other people mentioned about the noodle and mongolian grill but I didn’t test the water on that area so I can’t talk about how amazing or disgusting it is. I’ve heard generally nice things about it though.
The best part about this meal is the ice cream scooper placed next to the fruit selection. The mint chocolate chip ice cream is so good. Essentially it’s a gigantic freezer full of Turkey Farm buckets of ice cream for you to full up on after you’ve been dehydrated and bloated from the salt /​MSG heavy food.
The waiters are nice and welcoming. It’s worth a visit if you want to grab a bite to eat at a local chinese buffet. Not sure if I would go out of my way to visit this restaurant though. Although history doesn’t tell the same story because my family have outings here.

Don’t judge the Sakura chain on this review, because my friend says others are more Benihana-​style where a chef cooks high quality food at your table. This is nothing like that. Of course, those kinds of places are pricier. This one was very reasonable.
The location suggests that there is not much to expect here, which is the case. It’s tucked behind a bowling alley on Route 1/​Baltimore Road on your way to the heart of College Park (or Ikea, depending on which way you’re going). Either way, there is nothing else around it. They do have a parking lot, which is nice.
The place is not incredibly clean. I watched staff sloppily wipe away food crumbs from the buffet, only to see some of the crumbs remain on the counter and the remainder brushed to the floor. There is a overwhelming stench of cleaner, which takes away from the eating experience.
I’m not going to talk about the food temperatures because I didn’t have a thermometer, but the hot foods seems a lot hotter than the cold foods seemed cold. I saw hot trays swapped out frequently, even if the tray was still half full of food. So that’s good. I was disappointed to see the wasabi for the sushi was crusty. That had clearly not been swapped out any time recently. I wouldn’t say any of the food had any spice to it, and a lot of the dishes were surprisingly bland given that they were roasting in a sauce. There is a considerable amount of vegetarian options. The dessert bar is limited to a few cakes and about 8 flavors of hard ice cream. The ice cream spoon sat in dirty water though, and the ice cream case looked like the fingerprints hadn’t been wiped off since yesterday.
I like to try everything once, but once is enough for this place. However, I would be open to trying a Sakura at another location.

Sakura is a great place to have an gathering for birthday if you want reasonable prices. The food was good especially the dim sum. However, some of the food has little taste to it. I understand why. The bathroom could have been kept up a little more. Overall, the place was lovely and very friendly. Would I come again? Sure.

My visit to Sakura came about as a group lunch during a seminar. I was told that it was amazing, and that I would love it.
Walking through the door you are assaulted by a jumble of odors that under no circumstances should ever go together.
The staff was not inattentive, but at many times the lack of process or communication between them led to excessive confusion. For example, upon payment you are given an entry ticket, which is taken away by another person standing 2 ft. away, unfortunately this happens to be the same ticket you later need to get your drink.
To describe it as packed would not quite describe how many people were here, because at any given point a large percentage would be attempting to navigate around the various buffets. I find this unfathomable because I’m afraid the substances served here can only be classified as «food» under the most liberal definition of the term.

First time here, warm welcome at the door got seated. Went for first round, coconut shrimp was okay.
I decided for second go at the Hibach, got all my ingredients and the person behind the grill had me waiting on them for about 30 seconds why she was on her phone ordering clothes. Took my plate without even looking up throws my food on the grill and went back to ordering.
I got her attention and ask her, should you be cooking my food while playing with your phone? I was looked at as if I was stupid. Then she preceded to change the garbage while she still cooking my meal, good thing she washed her hands.
And I was given my food the same way she received my meal.
I will not be coming here ever.

Nice place/​settings for meeting over dinner.
The place is clean and the customer service is excellent.
Price: Reasonable.

A fair Chinese buffet, but they have a good sushi bar with fresh rolls and there is a teppanyaki station too. The highlight for me was the California roll topped with shredded krab. Everything else was a mudge of chicken or beef in sauce or fried things. Yes, it’s a Chinese buffet so I don’t expect healthy choices but at least make an effort, folks.
Service was good with dirty plates cleared quickly and water glasses refilled often.
Weird that the hot mustard was only available in packets.

Stomach is killing me. Effing great. Never going with the parents to eat Chinese buffet again.

When the buffet gods awoke that morning for me, I didnt know how to act. My best friend and I, went on a Sunday afternoon. Yes, it was busy and yes we had to wait all of 5 minutes, to get a table… And, that’s when it began… Food was hot, fresh, and really good.
The inner fatgirl in me, can’t wait to go back. Get there early…

I recently wrote a review for Ichiban in Gaithersburg, and honestly I’d much rather come to Sakura because it’s more reasonably priced and offers basically the same selection of food.
FOOD: Stir-​fry buffet per your own choice of noodle or rice with any greens and/​or protein (egg, shrimp, beef, pork, etc). Definitely accomodating for vegetarians — just make your own stir-​fry without meat! Good selection of Western and Asian food alike; their food is not overly salt or oily. Also a good selection of sushi (enough to satisfy a sushi craving). Don’t expect high-​quality sushi, but it’s pretty decent for the price. Not a whole lot of choices when it comes to cakes and cookies in the dessert section but they have fruit, banana pudding, and 4 – 5 ice-​cream flavors (vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, mint, etc). All pretty decent.
PRICE: Only $ 12 if you are a college student with an ID. They also have a coupon that can be used by 2 people per coupon. Given the quality and assortment of food, it’s definitely worth the price for a seafood & sushi buffet, in my opinion!
SERVICE: Good, efficient. Clean dining areas. Waiters clear your plates in a timely manner.
ENVIRONMENT: Casual and boisterous. College students, families w/​kids, coworkers — a lot of people come here. Good place for large parties, they’ll take you to a room in the back w/​ample seating. I’ve gone here with 15 – 20 people before and they were able to seat us altogether.